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Prosecutor: Bullet was 'fraction of an inch' from killing Warren Co. deputy

Prosecutor: Bullet was 'fraction of an inch' from killing Warren Co. deputy

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Updated: 6:31 PM EDT Mar 28, 2017

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WEBVTT ONY.KARIN: KATIE BARNES WAS THEFIRST TO TAKE THE STAND TODAY.SHE WENT TO THE LANDEN APARTMENTCOMPLEX TWICE THAT NIGHT, BOTHTIMES FOR A DOMESTIC CALL.THE SECOND TIME SHE FOUNDHERSELF IN A SHOOTOUT. SHE WAS SHOT.PROSECUTORS SAY THE BULLETMISSED KILLING HER BY JUST AFRACTION OF AN INCH.>> I HEARD A LOUD FLASH AND ABANG.KARIN: BULLETS FLEW OUTSIDE OF ALANDEN APARTMENT.>> IT'S A SOUND I'LL NEVERFORGET.IT'S LIKE A WHIZZING AND A LOUDBUZZING.KARIN: ONE BULLET HIT DEPUTYKATIE BARNES IN THE ABDOMEN, BUTSHE DIDN'T KNOW IT AT FIRST. >> WHEN I WENT TO PUT THE NEWMAG IN MY GUN, THE SLIGHT OF MYWRIST UNDER MY WATCH, I LOOKEDDOWN AND SAW MY SHIRT FRAYED,AND MY WRIST CAUGHT IT, AND ITWAS WARM AND WETKARIN: TODAY SHE WIPED AWAYTEARS WHEN RECALLING EVENTS OFTHAT NIGHT, JUNE 9 OF LAST YEAR.>> DID YOU WANT EVERYONE TO RUSHINTO THAT SCENE AT THAT TIME?>> NO. >> WHY NOT?>> I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE HE WAS,AND I DID NOT WANT ANYBODYCOMING IN TO THAT COMPLEX.KARIN: BARNES SAYS HER MAINCONCERN WAS PROTECTING OTHEROFFICERS.BLEEDING AND SHOT, SHE MADE ITAROUND BUILDINGS, OVER A FENCE,AND COLLAPSED NEAR HER SERGEANT.IN THE MEANTIME, THE HUNT WAS ONFOR HER SHOOTER.FOR NEARLY SEVEN HOURS,NEIGHBORHOODS WERE ON LOCKDOWN.20-YEAR-OLD MOHAMMED LAGHAOUIWAS EVENTUALLY ARRESTED.>> MOHAMMED LAGHAOUI IS MENTALLYILL.KARIN: AND HIS ATTORNEY SAYS HESHOULD BE FOUND NOT GUILTY BYREASON OF INSANITY.NADEEM QURAISHI SAYS IN THEMONTHS LEADING UP TO THESHOOTING, LAGHAOUI SHOWED SIGNSOF PARANOIA. HE BELIEVED THERE WAS A SNAKE INHIS STOMACH.>> HE TELLS THE FOLKS AT WESTCHESTER URGENT CARE, "I HAVE ASNAKE IN MY THROAT THAT'S TRYINGTO COME OUT, AND I KNOW THISBECAUSE I'VE SEEN IT."KARIN: QURAISHI SAYS LAGHAOUIWOULD TALK LIKE AN ALIEN ANDEVEN ASKED TO BE CALLED FRANK.INVESTIGATORS SAY LAGHAOUI ALSOSHOT HIS FATHER IN THE HAND THATNIGHT AND FIRED SHOTS AT ANEIGHBOR.PROSECUTORS SAY THE DOMESTICDISPUTE ALL STARTED BECAUSE OF AFIGHT OVER HUMMUS.

Prosecutor: Bullet was 'fraction of an inch' from killing Warren Co. deputy

She left after the situation calmed down but was sent back there about an hour later.

"Deputy Katie Barnes' attention was drawn to her right by the father seeking refuge into his apartment, and she never saw the ambush that came to her left," said Assistant Prosecutor Travis Vieux. "The defendant fired twice at Deputy Barnes, and one of those rounds struck her across the abdomen from left to right, tearing a massive wound, a fraction of an inch from literally shooting her guts out."

Barnes said she'll never forget what it sounded like.

"I heard a loud flash and a bang," she said.

Barnes said she tried to take cover as she fired back.

"Shots are being fired, I'm just trying to move my feet to get out and survive," Barnes said.

At that point, Barnes didn't know she had been shot. Then her gun jammed, she said.

"I went to put the new mag in my gun... I looked down and saw my shirt frayed, and my wrist caught it, and it was warm and wet," she said.

She had been shot in the abdomen. Barnes said she lost sight of the shooter, and she prayed.

She said she did not want other officers or paramedics to come to her because there was an active shooter on the loose.

"I didn't know where he was, and I did not want anybody coming into that complex," Barnes said.

Bleeding, Barnes made it around buildings, even hopped a fence to get to where her sergeant's car was.

"I got to Landen Drive, and my legs collapsed in front of a vehicle," Barnes said.

Her sergeant put her in the back of his cruiser and drove her to where paramedics were.

When assistant prosecutor John Arnold asked, "What is running through your mind at that point?"

Barnes answered, "Am I going to die?"

As she was being treated at the hospital, several Landen neighborhoods were put on lockdown.

The search for Laghaoui lasted nearly seven hours.

Defense attorney, Nadeem Quraishi said Laghaoui is mentally ill.

He perceives the world differently than the rest of us," Quraishi said. "He believed that someone was trying to kill him that night. He believed that he was under attack."

Therefore Quraishi said his client should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Quraishi said Laghaoui's paranoia started in 2015.

"He believed that he had a snake in his stomach, that he had a snake in his throat that was trying to come out," Quraishi said.

According to Quraishi, Laghaoui went to several hospitals and clinics to be looked at because of this snake.

"He tells the folks at West Chester Urgent Care, 'I have a snake in my throat that's trying to come out and I know this because I've seen it.' They take X-rays. They show him the X-rays. No snake," Quraishi said.

At Laghaoui's request, his family even took him to Morocco to be seen by his childhood doctor, his attorney said.

The bizarre behavior continued.

"He would paint his face all black and go out in public like that. He shaved his eyebrows, shaved his entire head," Quraishi said. "One description was that he would change his voice to the point where he sounded like an alien. He decided now that his name was Frank, that he wanted to be called Frank."

Laghaoui's attorney also said his client smoked synthetic marijuana months and days prior to the night he allegedly shot Barnes.

Laghaoui is accused of shooting his father in the hand that night and shooting at a neighbor.